Description of the attraction
The Church of St. Nicholas, popularly known as the Great Church, is the oldest in Gamla Stan, Stockholm's Old Town. Its building is an important example of Gothic Swedish brick construction. The church is located next to the Royal Palace, and to the south of it is the Stock Exchange building, facing Stortorget Square, which in turn houses the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Library and the Nobel Museum.
The Church of St. Nicholas was first mentioned in written sources in 1279 and was originally built by Jarl Birger, the founder of the city itself. For almost four centuries, it was the only parish church in the city, and after the Reformation in 1527, the cathedral was made Lutheran.
Thanks in large part to its convenient location and proximity to the former royal castle and the modern royal palace, St. Nicholas Church has often been the setting for major events in Swedish history, such as coronations, royal weddings and royal funerals. The last coronation that took place here was the coronation of Oscar II in 1873. Crown Princess Victoria, eldest daughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queen Sylvia, married Daniel Westling on June 19, 2010 at St. Nicholas Church. This took place in the same place and on the same day as the marriage of her parents in 1976.
The most famous of the church's treasures is the wooden statue of Saint George and the dragon by Bernto Notke (1489). The statue commemorating the Battle of Brunckeberg in 1471 also serves as a relic of the relics of St. George and two other saints. The church houses a copy of one of the oldest and most famous images of Stockholm, the painting Vadersolstavlan (False Sun); this copy dates from 1632, and the lost original dates from 1535. The painting was commissioned by the scientist and reformer Olaf Petri. It depicts a halo - a false sun, which gave the painting its name, and in the 16th century it was interpreted as a harbinger of terrible future events.
